Just FYI, We were to board Uniworld’s Maria Theresa in Budapest this Sunday but they let us know Tuesday night that we would be having a hotel night In Budapest Sunday then be driven to Vienna to pick up the normal schedule there on Monday, including the option of being driven to  Bratislava if we wanted. The hotel they offer is nice and it’s really moot because we were already in Prague pre-cruise and also because I’m in the come hell or low water camp of vacation! 
 

Anyway, wouldn’t have canceled but just letting you know what I experienced with Uniworld. 🙂

2 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

For dinner in Mobile, I would suggest The Noble South.  We sat at the bar and had tasty cocktails with small plates.

I was also going to suggest this place. Yummy! I really enjoyed cruising out of Mobile last year. Saw the battleship, visited the gulf museum and ate very well before the cruise. Very easy port. I hope you enjoy it too!

Heading over for my 10 AM boarding appointment in just a couple hours. Obviously I’m ready and have been since waking up at 6:45, lol! Good luck with the rest of your prep and drive down. Hope y’all are ready for this heat and humidity! Gonna need a frozen drink asap!

I just arrived in Mobile today to board Ecstasy 6/16…I’ll keep her in good shape for you! 😆

100%. Snacks are non-negotiable!

That all sounds delightful! I'll try to pass on all the greetings!

Thanks for this review! I board next week for my first ever solo and I was wondering how Serenity would be as I plan to park myself there a good bit of the time. Glad to hear food was decent and drinks were plentiful as I too am looking forward to using my drinks package!

Thanks for the review also of Noble South. Do you have any specific recommendations? 

I'm also on in a few weeks, my first solo. I have gone on tons of 4-5 day cruises on CCL with my family or girlfriends because the small ports are so much easier IMHO. And we're not partiers, but especially when my kids were small it was nice to have smaller ships because I could literally see them in the entire pool/slide area from certain viewpoints where I could sit and enjoy the sea. We could never do that on bigger ships. That said, the kids are teen/pre-teen now and are wise to the draws of the larger water parks and other stuff on larger ships so I guess those days are over. I like the larger ships too but just saying there are lots of people other than the party crowd that utilize the smaller ships--just probably not on spring break! 

Thanks for doing this. I'm on my first solo in June on Ecstasy and it's good to get reacquainted with her and the shorter cruises. Love all the pics and info!

Thanks. I'd love to see some port recon! 🙂

We're now a week back from our first Haven experience on the Epic, and in the DOS no less. It was spectacular, from start to finish, and I really don't see how we'll be able to do anything other than Haven in the future. Seriously. 

If anybody has any questions for me, please let me know. Our butler was Ahkmod and our concierge was Raol; our steward was Dan. Our favorite Haven bartender was Olga--all these folks were amazing. Every single staff person we came into contact with on the ship was just fantastic, but the Haven folks are even a step closer to perfection. I truly can not think of a single thing I wish had been done for us. An amazing week! Thank you all, especially @Sthrngary for helping us prepare for this week! The pre-concierge letter was followed to the T! Highly recommend that strategy! 

Great review, @quercus alba! So nice to meet you and Mrs. Q. I was so surprised that we never saw you again on the ship after that first dinner but then again we were so focused on maintaining our relaxation that I suppose it's really not so surprising. 🙂

For all the other readers: we had a 10:30 check in time and arrived right at that time to the pier where we dropped our bags and went through the process as described herein. It also took us about an hour (48 minutes to be exact) to both get our negative results after the test. After that, we were pretty quickly through security then Haven check in and escort to the ship. My text record says I was onboard, had been given a Haven tour and were in our room at 12:12 PM. So arrival to well onboard within an hour and a half. We also had a fantastic cruise and could not believe how amazing our first trip in the Haven turned out...that DOS is just something else. Anyway, sorry to hijack! Great cruise and great review!

Great review, thank you! Can’t wait to read the rest. Happy Holidays!

Thanks so much for sharing your time with us, on top of what you already do for all of us here—what a great community. I’m 8 days from boarding Epic in the once-in-a-lifetime suite and basically am beside myself with excitement! Congrats to your wife (and you!) for the slot pull and cruise! Happy birthday to your daughter! Safe travels!!

I had a tub on in a 2BR suite on Dawn and LOVED it. Was so looking forward to the same thing in Alaska in a couple years....oh well. I know I'm in the minority of folks that love a tub though. Spa pass here we come!

Link to page to upload vaccine card/register: https://www.travelsafe.pr.gov/

Thanks! 🙂

17 minutes ago, kdmbluerzr said:

Did you have the phantom "access code"?  If so, where/how did you find it?  Thanks

I didn’t have issue with the link, so when I clicked it I was walked through how to register and a temporary password was sent to my email to finalize registration. It looked like this:

Thanks to OP and all contributors. I didn’t have any issue with eurofins this morning but did have to re-verify my email and phone, which I wouldn’t have realized if not for this post. Good luck to everybody checking in! We’re almost there!

Thanks so much!

On 11/10/2021 at 10:34 AM, Sthrngary said:

Installment #5: "Family Cruise Vacation Journey Document"

 

This. Is. Perfect. I love the Rules section. My favorite is #1, which I could paraphrase as 'If you feel like complaining, go do it by yourself'. Hear, hear. 

6 minutes ago, Raz3r1 said:

really, this is the one I got I few days ago

Welcome Aboard Haven[3375].pdf 94.43 kB · 2 downloads

Hmm. We're in the H2 DOS--maybe that's the difference? I received the other one just a few weeks ago. 

19 minutes ago, Raz3r1 said:

I have seen 2 different welcome to haven documents on this board1961712298_WelcomeAboardHaven.pdf

this is one of them and it includes everything, but then I have also seen one that looks the same but it only gives options for pillows, coffee and tea.

So does anyone know which one is correct?

That's the one I received from NCL re: my 12/12/21 cruise, fwiw. 🙂

Following to prepare for our December cruise! Thank you for doing all this—it is SO helpful!

Here's one I found of the newly refurbed DOS 17004: 

Thank you for the update! My next cruise is supposed to be NCL Epic out of San Juan in December, so we’re very much hoping things keep improving. We’re vaccinated and ready to travel; we’ll show that card and test whenever we have to as long as we can keep traveling. 

Again, thanks for the update and stay well!